He finds no comfort in the embrace of Iromar on this waning evening. He had visited his mother's death site earlier in the day and simply sat within the marshes just staring into the cool, murky waters. Winter could never really keep its grasp upon this moorland and even though the temperatures dropped, the scaled monsters still remained as they warmed themselves in the sunlight that broke through the clouds.

If he were a creature of revenge then now would be the season to enact such a thing for the heinous deed that the beasts had done to his mother. But they were ancient, truly wild creatures that only acted on instinct. They did not pick and choose who they devoured as if it mattered at all. He thought of this as he had watched them soak in the sun and when he had enough, he raised to his heather gray paws and left the realm of Iromar for other things.

Perhaps his venture further up the river was sparked by his rumbling stomach in want for a meal or perhaps it was because other, unseen forces were pulling him that way. In either case, he finds the rabbit scurrying from its hiding place to be a suitable enough for an evening meal and quickly pins it down after a short pursuit. His jaws sever the spinal chord but he is careful enough not to ravage it until there is nothing left to consume. After all, even the hare have thinned since the beginning of winter.

With his prize limp between his gray and alabaster jowls he continues onward up the river as the first break of the night sky fades into existence behind the mountains. He searches for a suitable place in which to devour his kill but finds a myriad of hauntingly familiar scents assault his senses as he nears a bend in the river. His heart begins to race and his eyes search fervently for the beings he once knew so long ago. He halts as they fall upon two feminine figures just ahead, though they are not the ones he remembers from when they were children. They have changed... not in color or scent but they are matured and that much has his broken mind struggling to understand.

The hare is dropped to the ground as he watches them in silence, unsure if he should approach or to just wait and see if they were truly real. Taji's words hit him like a hundred waves crashing down upon his skull, ringing in his head, and making the world seem to spin. He still sees that young child that he had always known when he sees her and then the visions of death, blood, anguish begin to flood in. Lurid had died trying to save Taji from the scaled beast. Their mother sacrificed her life to give Taji hers all because the child was being foolish in her ventures.

Anger swells within him and yet he swallows it, pushes it back, deep down within his being. He is a swirling, wild contradiction of emotions and yet he steps forward to bump his scabbed skull against Taji's own in quiet. It is then that his eyes dare to roam across toward the dark one, one who he has not seen for centuries it seems; Malleah. Cautiously he approaches her, looking back to Taji to encourage her forward as well, his voice now coming out rasped and broken. "Lea.." Pink and jade eyes search the bright warmth of her own, the bleeding hare now forgotten behind him, as he desires assurance that it is her.

life of five years | of lurid & jumanji | saved by elara | promised to none | lost soul